I know I'm not the average customer, but by default I'm skeptical that a) the "smart" part of an appliance actually improves the product and b) a public company

I know I'm not the average customer, but by default I'm skeptical that a) the "smart" part of an appliance actually improves the product and b) a public company will refrain from eventually turning a perfectly good standalone product into an unreliable, untrustworthy, brickable rent-seeking service. (Alas, the real reason for low connectivity is surely just the difficulty for the average user of connecting the appliance to Wi-Fi.)